Parliament porn users' ID a secret

Alexandra Smith

THE NSW Parliament will not discipline or even identify staff members or MPs who used the parliamentary computer system to access websites that contained ''sexually explicit images of young people''.

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Richard Torbay, and the President of the Legislative Council, Amanda Fazio, have declared the matter closed despite confirmation that nine inappropriate websites were accessed.

In a statement yesterday, they confirmed that advice from the Crown Solicitor was that there was ''no legal obligation to refer the information in the report to the NSW Police Force''.

The identity of the staff or MPs who accessed the pornographic sites will remain secret, ensuring no one can be disciplined, despite an obvious breach of the Parliament's IT guidelines.

Mr Torbay said the identity of the users, who could have been ministers, MPs, their staff or non-political employees, was not included in a report by the consultants Ernst & Young, but he would not comment further.

Ms Fazio refused to respond to phone calls yesterday.

The report found that 35 sites visited appeared to be adult-related websites and also found the Parliament's internet filtering application, ContentKeeper, had classified personal web-based email such as Yahoo!, sport, news, fashion and food sites as adult content.

Ernst & Young was commissioned to review the internet filter after a parliamentary human resources executive, Lisa Vineburg, commissioned an unauthorised audit of internet use by all MPs and staff.

The raw data ended the ministerial career of the MP for Heathcote, Paul McLeay, who resigned after he learned details of his internet use had been leaked to the media. He admitted he had repeatedly visited pornographic and gambling sites from the parliamentary computer system.